Chasing Dreams
by dancingirl87
Summary: AU. What if the AI gang had met long before they actually did? CA or CD, lemme know!
1. Chapter One

Title: Chasing Dreams  
  
Author: Robyn  
  
Rating: PG, maybe PG-13 at the most  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine... we'd still have Doyle and all the Season 1 goodness if I did own 'em.  
  
Summary: AU. What if the AI gang had met long before LA? A/C or C/D, please lemme know! Also, please review; good or bad. It helps the story become even better!  
  
**One**

**---**  
  
"Well, Cordelia, what do you think?"  
  
Seventeen-year-old Cordelia Chase, tall, dark, and slim, looked up at the dilapidated old house in total disgust. She was standing, somewhat off to the side, of her parents, who had uprooted her from all that she had known and brought her here, of all godforsaken places to live in an old shack, which probably had mice.  
  
Mice.  
  
Ew.  
  
Cordelia shuddered. Mice were gross.  
  
"Well? Will you survive?" Cordelia's mother asked, looking tentatively at her only daughter.  
  
Cordelia sighed and pushed her last and only pair of designer sunglasses onto the top of her head. "I guess so. But you did have it exterminated, right?"  
  
Her father looked uncomfortable. "Well..."  
  
Cordelia looked appalled. She knew that her parents had practically no money now, and that they were pretty much penniless, but no exterminator?  
  
"I'm sleeping in the car." With that, Cordelia turned around and climbed back into the mini-van that her family now owned. She settled into the back seat, and let her head fall back against the headrest.  
  
God life sucks, Cordelia thought, letting her head fall back against the seat. First, Xander Harris, the loser of all losers in Sunnydale, practically dumps me, then Buffy Summers has the nerve to try to steal my friends and now I have to live in this dump.  
  
She turned her head and regarded the mess in front of her. It was made of stone, or it had been when it had been new, like a thousand years ago, and now chunks of stone were falling off the building. Sure, it was big enough, but the front porch was sagging, the shutters were falling off, and by the looks of the front yard, Cordelia didn't even want to venture into the backyard that had to be a freaking forest.  
  
But hey. At least not everyone in Sunnydale had to know what the Chase's had come to. Now she was in a new town, and Cordelia could start over brand new.  
  
She was in LA.

---

Francis Doyle groaned and looked at the clock hung atop of the door to the free world. The clock seemed to be moving at a snail's pace. It was as if this day from hell would never be over. Doyle was bored out of his mind, as geography was far from his idea of a good time, or even a good class.  
  
Beside Doyle, his friends Winifred Burkle and Charles Gunn were giggling disgustingly and passing what were probably sappy love notes. Fred and Gunn had been dating since forever, at least as long as Doyle had known them, and were always making gooey faces or dopey faces at each other.  
  
It was damn near enough to make him hurl.  
  
Gunn looked away from Fred for a second and noticed Doyle looking at them. He motioned to the teacher at the front of the room, made a stupid face, and rolled his eyes. Doyle took that to mean that he was bored too and he thought their teacher was a total dork.  
  
Gunn then went back to staring lovingly at Fred and vice versa and Doyle looked back at the clock. Only three minutes had passed. Three minutes! Was this class never going to end?  
  
Doyle leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. He randomly wondered how many tiles made up the classroom ceiling, and set out to find out. As he counted silently, Doyle's eyes began to droop, and soon he had fallen asleep in his desk.  
  
When the bell rang twenty minutes later Doyle jerked upwards, then because he was off balance, fell out of his desk, and face first on the floor.  
  
"Nice one man," Gunn congratulated him, offering a hand to help Doyle up off the ground. "Real classy."  
  
Doyle accepted the hand and stood up. "Yeah, yeah, thank a lot," Doyle grumbled, collecting his books from underneath his desk. "C'mon, let's get out of here. One day down, two hundred and fifty three more to go."

---

Cordelia couldn't sleep. She didn't know if it was because the car was really uncomfortable, the fact that she was in a brand new place or that her 'new' house was super spooky at night, but she had been sitting in the car for the past two hours not sleeping. It just wasn't right. By Cordelia's watch, it was almost one o'clock in the morning. No one should be up at this hour.  
  
Cordelia reclined in her seat and fiddled with the charm bracelet on her wrist. It was one of the real expensive things she had been allowed to keep. The bracelet was real silver and carried real silver and 24-carat gold charms from various places. Some Cordelia had received as gifts and some were from the luxurious places she and her family had travelled to.  
  
She snorted. No more luxuries any more. Just look at this neighbourhood. Sighing, Cordelia scanned the street ahead of her once more. No one. Just like the last twenty-zillion times she had checked. Then a shadow moved.  
  
Cordelia sat up and leaned forward in her seat. A person was creeping along the sidewalk on the opposite side of the street. No one was out at this hour. At least no one should be. Nevertheless, someone was indeed prowling around the neighbourhood.  
  
It couldn't be a burglar Cordelia reasoned. No one in this place would have anything of value to steal. That just left...  
  
Damn. That did not make me feel any better, Cordelia thought, wrinkling her nose. She reached down to grab the stake she now always kept in her duffel bag, but when she sat back up, there were now two shadows.  
  
"Oh great," Cordelia muttered. "I can't take two. One sure, I have lucky days, but two, yeah right. What am I? Buffy?"  
  
However, just as Cordelia was about to climb from the car, one shadow poofed into dust. "What? One vampire is killing another vampire. Yeah right, this I've got to see," Cordelia whispered.  
  
She clambered out of the car and strode confidently towards the person, or vampire.  
  
"Hey! Did you just stake that thing, or did I imagine it? 'Cause if you did, thanks a lot because now I don't have to, and if you're an evil vampire too, I'm gonna stake you now too. Okay? Okay."  
  
The person turned around, and Cordelia was awarded a glimpse of awe- inspiring blue eyes, before she was attacked from behind and everything went black.  
  
tbc... 


	2. Chapter Two

Thank you to everyone who reviewed! You are all awesome! I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with C/D, but it could still go either way! Also, thanks for all the kind words!  
  
Sorry this part took so long, but I've been working soo much this summer! I have no free time! I hope you all like this next part! :o) For all the other stuff, see part one.  
  
**Two**

**---**  
  
"Hey Cordy, are you coming out with us tonight?" Buffy Summers, petite and blonde looked questioningly at Cordelia awaiting her answer. Of course, Buffy hoped that Cordelia would say no, but it never hurt to ask.  
  
Cordelia looked at Buffy's questioning face, and then looked at her surroundings. She was standing in the hallway by the gym inside Sunnydale High, the hellhole where Cordelia had attended school for the past two and a half years. From far down the hall, Cordelia spotted Willow, Harmony, and Xander, her ex-best friends and ex-boyfriend respectively, coming towards her and Buffy.  
  
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Xander asked, standing close beside Buffy. He hoped that she would get the hint that he had dumped Cordelia for her.  
  
Willow smiled tentatively at Cordelia. "Hey," she said softly. "Did Buffy ask you to come with us tonight? 'Cause we would all really love it if you would, you know."  
  
Cordelia took a look at the faces around her. Buffy's face was a mix between disgusted and amused, Xander looked uncomfortable and dorky, Harmony looked bored and Willow was looking hopefully at Cordelia.  
  
"I don't think so. I have better things to do. You know," Cordelia said, rolling her eyes, "I have to re-arrange my closet and then I have to figure out how I can get losers like you from following me around all the time." With that, Cordelia turned around and flounced away down the hall.  
  
Inside she was fuming. Sure, the Slayer had been a novelty when she had first come to town, but what was so special about her. Really, what was so great about a ditzy blonde who got bloody and beat up fighting gross and ugly demons? Nothing.  
  
Cordelia went around a corner, pushed the door open, and stepped out into the hot California sunshine. There had to be something though, Cordelia thought, her forehead wrinkling in concentration and disgust. Sure, Buffy was pretty enough, which explained why Xander, dork that he was would dump her after two years of dating. And sure, she was interesting what with the demons and vampires, so Cordelia guessed she could see why Willow the Wicca would be on the Buffy train.  
  
Buffy had absolutely no fashion sense though. She also had a non-existent social life. So why had Harmony flocked to Buffy as soon as her ugly-combat- booted feet had hit Sunnydale soil? She and Harmony had been best friends since grade school, and as soon as someone more interesting showed up, Harmony dumped her.  
  
Cordelia sniffed, but held her head high. At least her parents had money.  
  
Oh, wait.  
  
They didn't anymore. That's why they were living in what had to be the most disgusting house in all of America.  
  
Cordelia stopped walking in the middle of the sidewalk. Why was she in Sunnydale if they were living in the shack in LA? Cordelia looked around. She was standing in her old neighbourhood, surrounded by mansions with perfectly sculpted gardens and lawns, in ground swimming pools and hot tubs. Across the street was Harmony's fifteen-room home. She could see Harmony's bedroom window, and wondered if her room had changed in the two months they hadn't been speaking.  
  
But as Cordelia was staring at Harmony's house, it began fading away. Startled, Cordelia turned in a circle, but everything around her was fading as if it had had water poured on it.  
  
"What the hell?"

---

"It's okay princess. You're all right."  
  
Cordelia woke with a pounding headache. She opened her eyes, squinted, and pressed a hand to her pounding head. She was positive that the darkened room around her was spinning, and was also positive that if it didn't stop she was going to hurl.  
  
Cordelia squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, all she could see was blue. Concerned blue eyes were peering curiously into her face.  
  
"Eeep!" She squeaked, scooting backwards away from the person. "Who are you?"  
  
He held his hands up in front of him, initiating peace. "It's alright. You're safe here. Don't worry."  
  
His voice had an Irish lilt that calmed Cordelia for an unknown reason. The person attached to the voice wasn't bad either. Messy dark hair framed a pale face, which usually indicated...  
  
"Hey! You're a vampire," Cordelia accused. She wriggled back from him even more.  
  
"No I'm not!" He said defensively, then he paused a moment. "You know about the vampires?"  
  
"Uh, duh. I was going to stake the sucker but you beat me to it," Cordelia informed him. "Hey, you know about vampires too."  
  
"Uh, duh," He mimicked. "Vampires are sort of our job you see."  
  
"Our job?" Cordelia questioned. "Who else is here? More vampires?"  
  
The teenager jumped up. "I told you I'm not a vampire. Why would I stake another one? And why would you still be talking to me?"  
  
Cordelia slowly rose, surveying him the whole time. "Alright, I guess that's true. But who are you then?"  
  
He stuck out his hand grinning boyishly at Cordelia. "Francis Doyle, but they call me Doyle."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Why, what?" Doyle asked, puzzled.  
  
"Why do they call you Doyle?" Cordelia stressed, rolling her eyes.  
  
He thought for a moment. "I'm not really sure. It just happened. What can I call you, princess?"  
  
"Cordelia Chase, pleased to meet you, I guess." She held out her hand and Doyle shook it, maybe grasping it a bit too long.  
  
Before Cordelia could comment on it though, a door opened at the end of the room and two teenagers around her own age walked into the room holding hands. They were obviously dating, and for a moment, Cordelia was reminded of stupid Xander Harris.  
  
"Hey, she's awake. HI, I'm Fred. Well Winifred Burkle but you can call me Fred. This is Gunn. You're not a vampire, right? 'Cause that'd be bad..."  
  
Cordelia smiled warily. "I'm Cordelia, not a vampire as long as you're not one either."  
  
"Doyle, man, the vamps in the King Street nest heard about old Porkchop. They're planning an attack," Gunn informed him, practically ignoring Cordelia. Apparently, the attack and Porkchop were more important.  
  
Doyle looked serious now. "When?"  
  
"Tomorrow. We've got to act fast man, if we don't want to get killed."  
  
"Okay let's go." Doyle strode to the door. "Coming, Cordelia?"  
  
Cordelia looked shocked. "What's going on? Who is Porkchop? How did I get here? I'm not going anywhere until I get some freaking answers people."  
  
Doyle walked back over to her. Porkchop is these vamps leader, and he was the one I staked tonight. You got here because I brought you here when another one of his vamps knocked you out from behind. He would have sucked you dry if I hadn't. Now, are you coming or not?" Doyle's blue eyes were intent on her own brown ones and Cordelia answered without even thinking.  
  
"Coming."  
  
Tbc...  
  
AN: If you didn't get it, the Sunnydale part was Cordelia remembering before she moved, while she was passed out. Please review!!! :o) 


End file.
